Robert Mahoney

Robert Mahoney is CPJ’s deputy executive director. He writes and speaks on press freedom, and has led CPJ missions to global hot spots from Iraq to Sri Lanka. He worked as a reporter, bureau chief and editor for Reuters around the world. Follow him on Twitter @RobertMMahoney.

How CPJ researches the killing and jailing of journalists

December 15, 2016 2:34 PM ET

Who is a journalist? In the era of citizen journalism, activist journalism and now "fake" journalism, the question is not academic. The Committee to Protect Journalists has just published its annual census of journalists in prison and next week it will release its survey of killed journalists....

A year after James Foley and Steven Sotloff murders, more awareness of risks

August 17, 2015 2:38 PM ET

Journalists who regularly cover violence are considered a hard-boiled bunch. But a year ago this month, even the toughest were crying. There was no emotional body armor to deflect the horror of the beheading videos of freelancers James Foley, Steven Sotloff, and other Westerners held hostage in Syria by...

Securing the newsroom: CPJ, journalists, and technologists commit

June 25, 2015 6:06 PM ET

It's second nature now for reporters rushing to a dangerous assignment to grab a helmet and vest. Physical security whether covering conflict or quakes is readily understood, if not always adequately implemented....

Syria anniversary shows need for more news outlets to step up

March 19, 2015 12:55 PM ET

It started as a street protest against President Bashar al-Assad. Ordinary citizens took out their smart phones to record the demonstrations that quickly spread. Four years and 220,000 dead later, the Syrian civil war is still raging, although the numbers of 'citizen' and professional journalists on hand to document...

A first step toward better safety for freelancers

February 13, 2015 3:24 PM ET

The murders of freelancers James Foley and Steven Sotloff last year put the news industry on the spot. What could news executives, press freedom groups, and individual journalists do to improve safety? The issue was not new. International news organizations had been grappling with their responsibility towards freelancers and...

Mission Journal: Creeping authoritarianism in Hungary

October 30, 2014 12:14 PM ET

On the Buda side of the River Danube stands the glass and steel headquarters of the thriving German-owned entertainment channel RTL. On the Pest side of the Hungarian capital, tucked in a corner of a converted department store, lies the cramped office of struggling online news outlet Atlatszo....

Journalist beheadings in Syria reignite debate over risk and safety for freelancers

September 16, 2014 11:03 AM ET

Now that the initial wave of revulsion at the beheading of two young journalists has passed, the international media is wringing its hands and asking how it can spare others the heartbreak of the families of U.S. journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff....

James Foley - a journalist's journalist

August 21, 2014 5:22 PM ET

Amid the tributes and war stories that followed the brutal beheading of James Foley this week, one memory from a fellow hostage shone a light on a side of his character that his audience might not have seen: his empathy not only for the people he covered but also...

Rushed data legislation would give UK worrying surveillance powers

July 15, 2014 4:33 PM ET

The British government's attempt to rush through a bill on data retention before the House of Commons summer recess next week has run into opposition--not from members across the aisle but from Internet companies, civil liberty defenders, and lawyers, who say the law would extend the authorities' already vast snooping...